Join us in the Buchanan Partners Art Gallery for a new exhibition featuring the artwork of Roshanak Banoo Hooshmand: The Fire of Spring (4/15–5/31). Born in Tehran in 1933, Hooshmand began her journey as a painter only a decade ago, at age 82. Since then, she has prolifically painted works inspired by poetry, a lifetime of experience, and ancient Persian culture. Find out more about what inspires this artist.
Why did you start painting?
I started painting because it felt easy to do so compared to what I was doing previously. Before, I was a mother of five kids, a wife with so many responsibilities, and worked full-time on developing properties and investments. I invested in a paint factory, built award-winning property complexes, created an import-export business, taught high school, and more. I was busy. Those were hard things to do. Painting came to me easily. It was fun and something which I was doing for myself. All it took was a brush and paint.
What do you want to say in your paintings?
I want my paintings to make you happy or at least help you understand happiness. My paintings are colorful. They are whimsical. They might address sad topics like loneliness, injustice, and loss, but then again, they are full of joy and should make you feel better. Each painting should make you have less pain and more happiness. I am not talking about being silly, but being deeply happy about life and what it offers you. When you look at them, ignore what I was thinking and read into them what you want, what you need to be happier.
Would you like to share anything else?
I love poetry. I read poems every day to my son in London and my daughter in Rome. It is good to see them while we read to each other. There is a poem of Hafez, an Iranian poet, that tells what I want to say in my paintings:
Let us go, you and I and scatter seeds
and harvest fields of flowers.
Tear the heavens’ ceiling open wide
and redo the ordained design of skies.
Should armies of despair arise,
And sorrow clouds bright light,
You and I will summon our forces,
And strike at its roots—fight, fight
Life is simple and beautiful. Paint this beauty and overcome day-to-day problems. Live life fully.
Don’t miss this inspiring exhibition that is on view April 15 through May 31. Visit the Buchanan Partners Art Gallery on the second floor of our Didlake Grand Foyer and experience Roshanak Banoo Hooshmand’s The Fire of Spring.